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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

It would not be surprising if the public feels as if the Taipei mayoral campaign has been going on forever.

First there was the raucous and prolonged Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) primary, which resulted in the selection of an independent candidate backed by the pan-green camp’s Ko Wen-je (柯文哲). However, the nine-in-one elections to be held on Nov. 29 are still four months away.

Monday, July 28, 2014

NOMINEES V ELECTIONS:Passage of the Control Yuan nominations tops the KMT’s list for the second extraordinary session, while the DPP is prioritizing an election-related billBy Chris Wang / Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have different priorities in the extraordinary two-week legislative session that opens to today, with the KMT likely to focus on passing the review of Control Yuan nominees

The review tops the 18-item agenda proposed by the KMT, followed by a special statute on governing the free economic pilot zones and a statute on oversight of the cross-strait agreements.

Friday, July 25, 2014

On Wednesday, Penghu Commissioner Wang Chien-fa (王乾發) was lambasted for a planned visit to China that critics said showed a disregard for the potential damage to lives and properties caused by Typhoon Matmo, which brought fierce winds and torrential rain to the nation, and caused 17 injuries between late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

Wang’s scheduled trip to Shenzhen, in China’s Guangdong Province, was not discovered until the commissioner was found taking the first flight back to Penghu yesterday morning after a plane crash in the county killed 48 passengers and injured 10 on Wednesday night.

Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), who is seeking re-election, enjoys a lead of almost 40 percentage points over Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), a public opinion poll released yesterday showed.

In a rematch between Chen, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and Yang, who ran against Chen four years ago, the mayor routed Yang 58.7 percent to 19.1 percent in the latest survey by the Want Want China Times poll center, the Chinese-language China Times reported yesterday.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is asking his supporters to stop criticizing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) for not seeking medical parole for him, the spokesperson of his private medical team said.

“[Chen] asked me to stop criticizing Tsai in my articles and public comments. He said that while he did not think what I did was a mistake, it would be better to stop criticizing Tsai and calling for people to cast spoilt ballots in the presidential election in 2016,” Janice Chen (陳昭姿), the spokesperson, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday night after visiting the former president in the prison hospital in Greater Taichung earlier that day.

The campaign office of independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) pledged to review the hiring of a substitute services military draftee as the office’s information technology adviser after a media outlet reported the controversial move yesterday.

Yen Yi-cheng (顏易程), a draftee of the three-year research and development substitute services, has been working as an aide to Ko in charge of the campaign office’s Internet services and security system, the Chinese-language Next Magazine yesterday reported.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

For the time being, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is able to evade the controversial proposal to freeze the party’s Taiwan independence clause after DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) sent it to the party’s Central Executive Committee for further discussion at the party congress on Sunday.

Rest assured that the issue is set to cause infighting and fiery debate within the party in the future. When it comes to independence, things have always been complex.

Initiators of the controversial proposal to freeze the Taiwan independence clause in the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) charter yesterday said that DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) reserving the proposal for future discussion was a “wise decision.”

“[Tsai’s handling of the proposal] was good for the party... I respect her move. It was a wise decision,” former DPP legislator Chen Zau-nan (陳昭南), who drafted the proposal with former DPP legislator Julian Kuo (郭正亮), told a radio interview hosted by Clara Chou (周玉蔻).

Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that his campaign platform on public housing, which aims to build 50,000 rent-only units in the city, is “workable” and that his main rival’s criticism shows “his unwillingness to tackle the housing issue.”

“Public housing is a difficult task, but a mayor has to have the determination to resolve it and has to be at least aggressive,” Ko said during a campaign stop at the Social Housing Advocacy Consortium, in response to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Sean Lien’s (連勝文) campaign office statement that Ko’s plan was not feasible.

Monday, July 21, 2014

The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) leadership for the next two years took shape yesterday during elections at the annual congress as DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) gained an ability to influence the party’s power structure for the first time.

Tsai, who neither established her own alliance nor became affiliated with any grouping when she served as chairperson between 2008 and 2012, yesterday saw allies voted onto the party’s key decisionmaking bodies — the Central Executive Committee and the Central Standing Committee.